Winter Returns

Chapter 63 "Cold-Blooded" Storyline (Bonus Chapter, Please Vote)

The nail salon was still there, and it was certainly strange for a man to walk in. But he knew the hidden trick: he paid the money and told the clerk that he didn't want a manicure, but just wanted to find a sofa chair to lie down for a while.

The shop assistant nodded with a strange look in her eyes.

Of course, it wasn't the same one as before. The turnover rate of employees in this kind of store is very high, but he didn't really care where those people went. The shop assistant was very nice. Since there was no one in the store now, she simply led him into a small booth on the inside. The curtain on the booth became a door. Zhang Shutong lay on the sofa with his eyes open, aimlessly scrolling through his phone.

He opened the photo album and quickly scrolled through all the pictures. He rarely took photos in recent years, nor did he save any pictures from the internet; most of them were work-related.

He's switched to an Android phone now, with a full-screen display and tons of features; it can meet all his modern needs for entertainment, food, clothing, housing, and transportation. But for some reason, he still misses the iPhone with its tiny 3.5-inch screen.

He was searching through what he had left behind on this timeline.

The same old takeout orders, a few e-books, downloaded music... This guy is a complete bastard. Zhang Shutong couldn't understand why he had to erase everything related to the case.

He even tried the phone clone feature—a function unique to Android phones that allows different systems to be accessed based on different fingerprints—but unfortunately, there was only one system.

To Zhang Shutong's surprise, there was a hidden album. He clicked on it with excitement, but was somewhat disappointed.

There were only two photos. One looked like it was taken in a temple. The lighting was dim, and there was a sculpture of a green snake in the temple, which reminded him of the tattoo on his arm. On the altar under the statue, besides a few candles, there were several small figures. Their faces were all facing the phone camera, and their faces were dark and indistinct, looking a bit sinister.

Upon closer inspection, Zhang Shutong realized that the figures were made of clay, and they had no facial features, only a blurry face.

He didn't know what kind of custom this was, but he knew it was the temple called the Green Snake Temple, and it seemed he had already been there.

Zhang Shutong thought for a moment, then looked at another picture, which was of a girl. This discovery startled him, and he even stopped what he was doing.

Because it was a girl with medium-length hair and an oval face, wearing a crooked pink baseball cap with a Mickey Mouse pattern on it. A hand was also sticking out from off-screen, and it turned out that the hat was being put on her head by that hand, which is why her surprised expression was captured.

Her hair was a little messy, and Zhang Shutong's heart was in a mess too.

Why is this photo still here?
Didn't I delete it myself?

This photo was taken on December 7, 2012, and now it's December 12, 2020. It had been hidden in the album for eight years and three days, and now it appeared in front of him holding that girl.

He felt as if he had left nothing behind, yet he had left everything behind.

He wondered how his timeline self discovered Gu Qiu Mian's death. He was always a man of his word, and since he had promised to have lunch with her, he would definitely get up early. He also had a good memory, remembering that she had said she would arrive early and then simply said she would pick him up from home.

He thought about how the boy named Zhang Shutong had been waiting for her message at home, waiting and waiting. He probably thought she was trying on clothes again or applying glossy lip gloss in front of the mirror in the dressing room... What a troublesome girl. But this time, it was she who broke the promise, and his life was changed from then on.

But this bastard has already hurt too many people.

He was a heavy smoker, he showed obvious signs of training, and he even lost the last vestige of humanity, attending an uninvited funeral.

After Zhang Shutong paid the bill, just before leaving, the waitress timidly asked if he wanted a drink, which was included in the set meal.

The shadow gradually overlapped with the girl who had reached out to encourage him. Zhang Shutong was stunned for a moment, then shook his head and thanked her.

I'm sorry to have let you all down.

He glanced at his phone; it was a little past eight. He then walked briskly down the empty, deserted street.

He already knew pretty much what was going on while he was at the lake fish restaurant.

restricted area.

Two girls who died in the forbidden zone, just like in the original timeline.

A life that has not been changed, still has the ability to rewind, and has shut itself off at home.

There was also a funeral that no one invited.

The time when Lu Qinglian "turned her back" was during the summer vacation.

It can only be during the summer vacation.

He once went to the Green Snake Temple festival during summer vacation, but unfortunately fell off the mountain and gained the ability to rewind time.

Zhang Shutong has always believed that the temple was the key to gaining the ability.

But he overlooked one condition—time.

Both location and time are indispensable.

He was certain he didn't have that ability during those four days in junior high school. After Gu Qiu Mian died, he probably tried it at that temple, but nothing happened. In the end, he gave up on it and went with Lu Qing Lian, perhaps to investigate the murderer.

Until summer vacation.

He regained the same ability at the same time and in the same place.

And the possibility of starting over.

So, according to Ruoping, he seemed to have become a different person during that summer vacation.

He finally regained the ability to rewind time, then deceived everyone, leaving Lu Qinglian on that island.

From that point on, for eight long years, he used those around him as pawns; this cold-blooded bastard was gambling on one possibility—

He can return to eight years ago tonight, December 12, 2020!

Around 8 o'clock, Zhang Shutong returned to the waters known as the "restricted area".

If the mechanism of regression is "if something bad happens around you, you will return to the key point before the event happened", then what he can gamble on is being killed by the "murderer" again here.

Zhang Shutong has no way out.

Only by saving his own life, saving his relationship with his best friends, and saving the two dead girls can he have a chance to reverse this worst possible timeline.

Just then, his phone rang. He stared at the contact's name, lost in thought, before finally pressing the answer button.

A calm male voice came from the phone:

"You should be on the island by now."

"I asked Meng Qingyi, who is 24 years old."

"I'm here, what's wrong?"

“I don’t know either, I just got off work.” His voice was equally indifferent. “But you asked me to let you know tonight, ‘Be in the restricted area before nine o’clock,’ don’t forget.”

"I know, thank you."

The other party immediately hung up the phone.

Zhang Shutong put away his phone and slowly squatted down on the shore. There was no moonlight tonight, and when he turned on the flash, the lake surface was a pale white. He couldn't hear the croaking of frogs or insects, only the fishy stench of the mud. Zhang Shutong squatted there by the lake, waiting for the night wind to stiffen his body.

The reeds by the lake rustled, and he suddenly felt as if he were in another world.

At that moment, the many words he had heard throughout the day resurfaced in his ears:

"Condolences."

"Is this how you protect her? Zhang Shutong, you don't seem to feel anything at all? And you're even offering condolences... you..."

"Zhang Shutong, you're still as cold-blooded as ever."

"You dumped Qinglian less than half a year ago, and you turned your back on her, and now you're with someone else. You have the nerve to ask me what happened?"

"You said you didn't need our help and that you had already figured out a solution, but we only found out when school was about to start that you were lying. You fooled everyone!"

"But why did you lie to us back then? Do you know that because of this, Qinglian never left this island her entire life, from birth to death, and spent her whole life in that temple!"

"If you care about her so much, why haven't you visited her grave in the past eight years?"

"Now tell me, how dare you tell me to accept my condolences?"

"Shutong, this disheveled state is unlike you."

"You are the student the teacher is most proud of."

"Where?"

"old place."

"You treat, I treat, stop arguing..."

"I told you so, I've been here many times over the years, I know exactly what's good and what's bad."

Nobody knows who it is.

"So you haven't given up on finding that person after all these years, the murderer of Gu Qiumian."

"...Yes, you're smart, and we're stupid, but what do you take us for? Did you see him even a little bit sad at the funeral home just now?"

"I just want an explanation! Why did he turn out like this!"

"You think I don't want to?"

"None of you have considered me? You've all forgotten that I still remember!"

"Didn't we promise to go to school in the city together and stay best friends forever?"

Sorry.

"Feel sorry."

He repeated it in a low voice.

What he remembered most vividly was that rainy night, when he stood on the porch outside the villa, his teacher in a bathrobe standing beside him, and the words she spoke:
"But, Shutong, have you ever heard the saying, 'Too clever by half'?"

"I'm not saying you'll definitely suffer losses in the future, but rather that just because you're smart, you can't just be calculating all you can do."

"Well, we're all living, breathing human beings. We can't live like machines that only know how to calculate. If we lose all our humanity..."

If even that last vestige of human kindness is gone—

That would lead to the worst possible timeline.

The time came to 8:50.

His heart began to pound uncontrollably.

Just then, the picture finally arrived on her senior's WeChat. Zhang Shutong quickly opened it.

There was a blurry human figure inside, and the time format was:

2012 12 Month 9 Day.

"This is the only surveillance camera near Gu Qiumian's house, and it only captured this one person all night long."

Zhang Shutong put away his phone in surprise.

Because of that figure—

She actually had waist-length hair.

That is……

The wind picked up, and the weeds behind him began to rustle. Zhang Shutong kept counting down the time in his mind, his finger resting on the shortcut key on his phone, ready to turn on the flashlight at any moment.

He could hear the suppressed footsteps behind him. This body was exceptionally strong and reacted quickly; the instant the other person approached, he swiftly turned around and switched on his flashlight—

Zhang Shutong's eyes widened instantly.

because--

The other person's face was covered by something, so you couldn't see their face at all!
Then something cold and sharp was plunged into his throat!
The phone fell to the ground.

In the last moment before his consciousness faded, he saw the time displayed on the screen.

2020 12 Month 12 Day.

At 8:59, it flashed and jumped to 9:00.

The backtracking was triggered.

……

The black and white film of the world trembled. When his consciousness returned to his body, he instinctively covered his throat and opened his mouth silently.

What appeared before me was not the classroom from my junior high school days, but the faces of three boys and girls.

This is a restaurant.

They stood beside the tablecloth-covered dining table, smiles blooming on their faces, their four hands clasped together, and they said in unison:
"cheers!"

(End of this chapter)